WATERSHED AND INSTREAM IMPACTS ON THE FISH POPULATION IN THE SOUTH FORK OF THE CLEARWATER RIVER,IDAHO1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a statistical analysis performed for the watershed and stream corridor in the South Fork of the Clearwater River (SFCR) basin, in north central Idaho. The analysis was performed for 61 six‐field hydrological unit codes (HUCs) of the SFCR basin using an extensive record (up to 100 years) for 50 watershed and in‐stream parameters, including hydrologic, flow, fish, anthropogenic, and natural activity data. The objective of this research was twofold: first, the development of quantitative relations that describe the Index of Fish Density (IFD) of particular fish species as a function of watershed and instream parameters; and second, to provide a robust confirmation for the effects of some of these parameters, previously recorded by the fisheries profession, by using well established statistical techniques. The uniqueness of this work is the compilation and statistical analysis of large data sets to quantitatively describe the impacts of watershed and instream parameters on the IFD of all salmonids and specific fish species. Factor analysis was employed to regroup parameters that are highly correlated to each other into a set of single factors and to relate the IFD to these factors. Using factor extraction, 12 factors were developed from the 50 watershed and instream parameters. Multiple regression diagnostic tests indicated that only 7 of the 12 factors are strong predictors offish indicators. The strongest predictors are longitude, latitude, elevation, watershed gradient, and water temperature. The analysis indicated that the present model has reasonable predictive power, considering the uncertainty involved in estimating the interdependence of IFD with watershed parameters.     

国内外环境噪声监测方法比较及启示

综合比较了中国、日本、欧盟、美国和澳大利亚等国家或地区的环境噪声监测与评价方法,分析了声环境质量监测法、噪声地图预测法和噪声源监测法3种环境噪声评估方法的优缺点,认为声环境质量监测法适合现阶段中国环境噪声监测与管理需求,但下一步应结合噪声产生与传播预测方法改进中国声环境监测评价方法,增强对监测过程的质控,增加重点噪声源监测,以期更全面地反映城市声环境质量状况。     

Assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in the Nordic countries – an interactive geovisualization approach

Nordic agriculture must adapt to climate change to reduce vulnerability and exploit potential opportunities. Integrated assessments can identify and quantify vulnerability in order to recognize these adaptation needs. This study presents a geographic visualization approach to support the interactive assessment of agricultural vulnerability to climate change. We have identified requirements for increased transparency and reflexivity in vulnerability assessments, arguing that these can be met by geographic visualization. A conceptual framework to support the integration of geographic visualization for vulnerability assessments has been designed and applied for the development of AgroExplore, an interactive tool for assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in Sweden. To open up the black box of composite vulnerability indices, AgroExplore enables the user to select, weight, and classify relevant indicators into sub-indices of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. This enables the exploration of underlying indicators and factors determining vulnerability in Nordic agriculture.     

Location and Characterization of Emission Sources for Airborne Volatile Organic Compounds Inside a Refinery in Taiwan

This study aimed to locate VOC emission sources and characterized their emitted VOCs. To avoid interferences from vehicle exhaust, all sampling sites were positioned inside the refinery. Samples, taken with canisters, were analyzed by GC–MS according to TO-14 method. The survey period extended from Febrary 2004 to December 2004, sampling twice per season. To interpret a large number of VOC data was a rather difficult task. This study featured using ordinary application software, Excel and Surfer, instead of expensive one like GIS, to overcome it. Consolidating data into a database on Excel facilitated retrieval, statistical analysis and presentation in the form of either table or graph. The cross analysis of the data suggested that the abundant VOCs were alkanes, alkenes, aromatics and cyclic HCs. Emission sources were located by mapping the concentration distribution of these four types of VOCs in terms of contour maps on Surfer. During eight surveys, five emission sources were located and their VOCs were characterized.     

Toward knowledge structuring of sustainability science based on ontology engineering

In sustainability science (SS), it is difficult to identify what needs to be solved, and it is also not clear how to solve the problems that are identified. There has been no consensus on the underlying question of “What is structuring knowledge in SS?” This paper focuses on knowledge structuring accompanied by supporting of thinking. It addresses the key challenges associated with knowledge structuring in SS, identifies the requirements for the structuring of knowledge, proposes a reference model, and develops an ontology-based mapping tool as a solution to one layer of the reference model. First, we identify the important requirements for SS knowledge structuring. Second, we develop a reference model composed of five layers based on three of the requirements. Third, we develop an ontology-based mapping tool at Layer 2 of the reference model for meeting the two major challenges for SS, namely, identifying what problems should be addressed in SS itself and proposing solutions for those problems. The tool is designed to store and retrieve information regarding SS, to provide access to a prototype ontology for SS, and to create multiple maps of conceptual chains depending on a user’s interests and perspectives. Finally, we assess whether the developed tool successfully realizes the targeted part of the reference model for SS by examining the tool’s conformity to the reference model, as well as its usability, effectiveness, and constraints. Although several issues were identified in the prototype ontology and the mapping tool, the study concluded that the mapping tool is useful enough to facilitate the function of Layer 2. In particular, the mapping tool can support thinking about SS from the viewpoint of: (a) finding new potentials and risks of technological countermeasures studied in SS; (b) helping users to get a more comprehensive picture of problems and their potential solutions; and (c) providing an effective opportunity to come up with new ideas that might not be thought of without such a tool.     

Using Earth Observation to update a Natura 2000 habitat map for a wetland in Greece

The European Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC has defined the need for the conservation of habitats and species with the adoption of appropriate measures. Within the Natura 2000 ecological network of special areas of conservation, natural habitats will be monitored to ensure the maintenance or restoration of their composition, structure and extent. The European Space Agency's GlobWetland project has provided remotely sensed products for several Ramsar wetlands worldwide, such as detailed land cover-land use, water cycle and inundated vegetation maps. This paper presents the development and testing of an operational methodology for updating a wetland's habitat map using the GlobWetland products, and the evaluation of the extent to which GlobWetland products have contributed to the habitat map updating. The developed methodology incorporated both automated and analyst-supervised techniques to photo-interpret, delineate, refine, and evaluate the updated habitat polygons. The developed methodology was proven successful in its application to the wetland complex of the Axios-Loudias-Aliakmon delta (Greece). The resulting habitat map met the European and Greek national requirements. Results revealed that GlobWetland products were a valuable contribution, but source data (enhanced satellite images) were necessary to discriminate spectrally similar habitats. Finally, the developed methodology can be modified for original habitat mapping.     

鞍山市化学事故辅助决策系统的开发

以科学实用为出发点,对鞍山市化学事故辅助决策系统的建立和开发进行了研究。分析讨论了建立该辅助决策系统软件的背景及意义;根据GB6944—2005《危险货物品名表》,应用Access2003数据库和VB6.0语言进行编程,构建危险化学品资料查询数据库,实现模糊查询和精确查询功能;通过分析、比较扩散模型中应用较广泛的高斯模型、SLAB模型、ADMS模型,结合鞍山市当地的实际气象数据,确定ADMS模型为该软件所用扩散模型,并根据ADMS模型和毒负荷法建立危险区域划分标准;根据鞍山市的实际情况,在灵图2006和消防水源电子地图的共同支持下,实现救援车辆电子地图导航和现场实时水源显示功能。     

Characterization of humic substances of different origin by means of mass spectrometry and neural networks

Mass spectrometry fingerprinting of humic acids extracted from different soils has been carried out using laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-TOF MS). LDI-TOF MS provides characteristic mass spectra fingerprints for the humic acids of different origin. The information given in the fingerprints was evaluated for natural grouping trends in the samples by neural networks computing tools, such as self-organizing feature map (SOFM). This approach is efficient for recognizing patterns in the humic acids samples independently of their characteristic variability; variability characterizing natural products such as humic substances. The use of multi-layer perceptron artificial neural networks gave a successful classification of the samples.     

深圳市新一代暴雨强度公式的研制

首先构造了深圳市新一代暴雨强度公式研制的路线图，重点是利用深圳市气象局1954-2003年50年间的暴雨记录，用指数分布和P-Ⅲ分布进行分布曲线拟合和选优，得到了理论上的雨强-历时-重现期三联表，在此基础上再分别采用最优法、二分搜索法和广义逆法等3种方法求解分公式和总公式参数，根据误差最小的原则确定最优方法。结果表明：由指数分布拟合分布曲线，经过上述步骤求解得到的公式参数，误差最小，符合相关国标要求。     

Prediction of potential areas of species distributions based on presence-only data

We introduce a methodology to infer zones of high potential for the habitat of a species, useful for management of biodiversity, conservation, biogeography, ecology, or sustainable use. Inference is based on a set of sites where the presence of the species has been reported. Each site is associated with covariate values, measured on discrete scales. We compute the predictive probability that the species is present at each node of a regular grid. Possible spatial bias for sites of presence is accounted for. Since the resulting posterior distribution does not have a closed form, a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is implemented. However, we also describe an approximation to the posterior distribution, which avoids MCMC. Relevant features of the approach are that specific notions of data acquisition such as sampling intensity and detectability are accounted for, and that available a priori information regarding areas of distribution of the species is incorporated in a clear-cut way. These concepts, arising in the presence-only context, are not addressed in alternative methods. We also consider an uncertainty map, which measures the variability for the predictive probability at each node on the grid. A simulation study is carried out to test and compare our approach with other standard methods. Two case studies are also presented.